Call for Applications: Capacious Minds Fellows
The Kenan Institute for Ethics invites undergraduate students to apply for a year-long fellowship program for the 2026-27 academic year, Capacious Minds Fellows.
Please note that the deadline to apply is Aug. 30, 11:59 p.m.
PROGRAM
Capacious Minds Fellows aims to help undergraduate students develop “capacious minds” through engagement with expanded modes of thinking including:
- Embodiment, via movement practices that reveal how our entire physical beings are involved in thinking—not just our brains;
- Wonder, through interaction with the rest of the natural world; and
- Play, as an open-ended, non-linear way of engaging with each other and the world.
Through these practices, students will learn to better attune to themselves, each other, and the rest of the world, in hopes this will help us treat ourselves, each other, and the rest of the world better. As a part of this attunement, students will develop an ethos of curiosity about others’ experiences and perspectives.
This fellowship seeks to complement the traditional academic ways of thinking and learning that students develop in the university classroom. It is a part of Capacious Minds, a KIE program that launched in the 2025-26 academic year.
COMMITMENT
Capacious Minds Fellows are expected to participate in weekly 2.5-hour sessions over the course of 12 weeks each semester, fall and spring — a total of 24 sessions over the academic year.
Fall semester sessions are scheduled on Wednesday evenings 5–7:30 p.m. and will run on the following dates: Sep. 9, Sep. 16, Sep. 23, Sep. 30, Oct. 7, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, Nov. 11, Nov. 18, and Dec. 3. Dinner is provided.
Spring semester sessions will be scheduled after taking the Fellows’ availability into account.
Students are expected to attend all sessions. In some cases, students may be able to miss one session per semester after prior communication with the program director.
These sessions represent the bulk of students’ commitment. Generally, students are not expected to do significant reading or other work in their own time that would be in any way comparable to a course workload. However, during some weeks, students will be asked to read or listen to materials, or engage in conversation or other practices, outside of session for up to 1.5 hours.
Students must also submit short weekly reflections.
As this program is only in its second year, fellows will also be asked to help evaluate the content and structure of the program and suggest changes for future cohorts.
After completing the program, Capacious Minds Fellows will also be eligible to apply to be Fellowship mentors/facilitators for the following academic year.
ELIGIBILITY
All undergraduate students are eligible to apply.
AWARD
Fellows will receive $500 after successfully completing the Fall and Spring semesters of the program (for a total of $1000).
APPLY
To apply, please complete the following Qualtrics form. In addition to providing your name, Duke Unique ID, class year, and your availability to attend the scheduled sessions in the fall, we’ll ask you to write thoughtful answers to seven open-ended questions.
The application deadline is Aug. 30, 11:59 p.m.
CONTACT
If you have any questions about this program, please contact the director of the Capacious Minds Fellowship Program, Brooks Emanuel, at brooks.emanuel@duke.edu.
At the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Brooks creates and implements both curricular and cocurricular programming for undergraduates around radical imagination, expansive thinking, and strategies — including embodied and artistic — for changing the world. In addition to his work at Kenan, Brooks facilitates embodied movement workshops for social justice practitioners and creates performance works that investigate humans’ relationships to each other and the rest of the natural world.